So I’m sitting in a restaurant on Melrose and I hear someone’s cell phone start ringing at the next table, and a guy puts the phone to his ear and begins to shout — not talk, but shout.

I sigh.

The man, I realize, is one of millions upon millions of cell phone users who don’t seem to realize that cell phones electronically amplify your voice, which means that you can speak normally — or, in most cases, even more quietly — when talking into them. But then, I realize that the call is probably meant to impress the person sitting around him, as much as to impress the poor guy on the other end, and for that, yelling is sadly required. (more…)

It probably won’t come as any surprise to you that I get absolutely flooded with “scientific” studies from friends, colleagues, researchers and even some of you viewers with a great sense of humor, who believe you have uncovered new insights to human behavior — or at least like a good yuk-yuk moment. I love getting these.

Sometimes I’m thinking, “Jeez, this must be our tax dollars at work!” Somebody, probably you and me, is likely funding some of this “research!” Anyway, I thought I would clear a bit of my inbox. Who knows, maybe there is something here you really didn’t know. If so, you are either a guy with a football where your brain is supposed to be (I swear, I get that way this time of year!) and would be out of your emotional depth in a street puddle, or have been in a coma for a few decades. Anyway, enough smarty-pants remarks. Here’s the current crop with a few observations (more smarty-pants remarks).